"Yes," murmured Mrs. Thornton. "Mr. Madison is right. I know it, I feel it--the money will come faster than we have any idea of." Madison smiled at her quietly. "It will come," he said. "People will give their money, their jewels, anything, and give joyfully--and until the amount in hand is large enough to warrant beginning operations, Miss Vail naturally will be its guardian." "I?" said Helena hesitatingly. "I--I am only a girl, I would not know what to do." "You would not have to do anything, Miss Vail," Madison informed her reassuringly. "When the time comes for advice, the making of plans and the carrying of them out, the brightest minds in this country will be offered freely and voluntarily, you will see." "And meanwhile," inquired Thornton--he had been studying Helena's profile intently, "would you propose keeping the contributions here?" "Of course!" said Madison. "And not only here, but openly displayed as an added incentive for others to give--if added incentive be needed. Here, for instance"--he rose as he spoke, went to the mantel over the fireplace and lifted down a quaint, japanned box, fashioned in the shape of a little chest, which he placed upon the table. "And here, too"--he crossed to the bookshelves in the alcove, and took down a very old, flexible-covered book. "Once," he said, "the Patriarch showed me this. It was a blank book originally, half of it is blank still; but in the front, in the Patriarch's own writing, is an essay he wrote in the years gone by on 'The Power of Faith'--what could be more fitting than that the remaining pages should be filled with a record of the contributions to that faith?" He laid the book on the table beside the little chest, and sat down again. "There is no display, no ornamentation, no attempt at anything of that kind--it is simplicity, those things serving which are first at hand--as it seems to me it should be--those who give record their names and gifts in this book--the little chest to hold the gifts is open, free to the inspection of all." "But is that wise?" demurred Thornton. "So large a sum of money as must accumulate to be left openly about? Would it not be a temptation to some to steal? Might it not even endanger Miss Vail and the Patriarch himself--subject them, indeed, to attack?"